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It should come as no surprise that the same folks who took home this year’s Best Bakery honors would clean up in this category as well. Right next door to the Farm to Market Bakery is a Chuckanut Drive mainstay, the Rhody Cafe, which has had a longstanding commitment to hyperlocal ingredients, seasonal menu planning and small-town charm. The desserts rotate along with the menu, and when you want to end your meal with the best sweet treats of the season, this is where you go.

Celebrate the New Year at The Rhody!
There will be two seatings – 5PM + 7:30PM
$75 per person
10% OFF Bottles of Wine all evening + we have COCKTAILS this year too! Menu Details COMING SOON!
for more information, go to http://www.rhodycafe.com/
or call 360-766-6667 for reservations.
Must be 21+ to drink alcohol!

The Making of the Paella King – I started this business in 1997 with the idea of recreating some of the joy of music and food that I experienced in the gypsy community in Spain, both for my clients and for myself. I chose paella because it is a great party dish and I was aesthetically drawn to it. Who could not be inspired in the presence of a good paella, with its prawns, squid, chicken, clams, mussels, and legumes resting in a bed of golden, saffron-infused rice? It is a fiesta in a pan!

Chef Jim Kowalski, owner of the beloved Rhody Café in Bow is back in our kitchen to show us how to make some seasonal favorites from his restaurant kitchen. We’ll begin with a colorful Caprese Salad using tomatoes and basil grown right at the Rhody, then for our main it’s a Braised Lamb Shank with a Sage Walnut Pesto and Saffron Risotto. For dessert, a Chocolate Torte with Skagit Blueberry Coulis. Delicious!

The Rhododendron Cafe has been enticing breakfast-lovers for years. But when Jim and Lisa Kowalski took over the cafe last year, they elevated this restaurant’s culinary delights. Have you had their salmon Eggs Benedict? No? That’s no one else’s fault but your own. Rhody Cafe is showing its craft in every plate. They even make their own English muffins, which is reason enough to head up Chuckanut Drive and stop in for an award-winning breakfast.Where: 5521 Chuckanut Drive, BowInfo:http://www.rhodycafe.com

Seattle.Eater.com: Skagit Valley’s annual rite of spring, the month-long Tulip Festival, provides a good excuse for exploring the region’s dining options, which are by turns folksy, trendy, and surprisingly sophisticated.

After the mildly surreal experience of walking through color-drenched tulip fields, the direction you point your car will determine how you satisfy your hunger. Just to the east, Mount Vernon and Burlington provide classic small-town choices—a bar and grill, a burger joint, a couple of ethnic holes-in-the-wall. West of the fields, La Conner is a former artists’ colony that’s now primarily a high-end retirement village, with upscale-casual restaurants to match. Drive north and you’ll hit tiny Edison, which feels like a block of Brooklyn plopped down in a field along Salmon Bay.

The Rhody Cafe

You may well get your finest meal in Skagit Valley at the little Rhody Cafe, located in a modest farmhouse a few blocks from Edison in the sister town of Bow. The kitchen manages to balance simplicity and sophistication, meticulously executing timeless specialties like grilled salmon salad and pan-seared pork chops with apple brandy.